Entries tagged with photography

On Saturday morning I was up before 7am to get a train then a tube then the Emirates Air Line cable car to go to the ExCel in London for the second day of the Doctor Who Festival. I was in my cosplay, with added fez, and I'm so glad that I didn't chicken out and just wear my normal clothes because it really was so much fun.

Here I am at the welcome sign in all my Eleventh Doctor glory:

(That photo was actually taken at the end of the day, but shhh. Let's pretend it was the beginning!)

Inside the Festival Hall there was a giant Lego Tardis. Two things I love brought together!:

I took quite a few photos of the talks, but they didn't all come out very well cos I was a bit far back. I've put a few of them up on Tumblr. The ones from the Meet the Cast talk are here and then I have a separate post with pictures of Mark Gatiss with Mr Sweet because I loved how adorable it looked. Far cuter than any poisonous, blood sucking leech has any right to be! Those pictures are here.

The props and prosthetics were really interesting and I bought quite a lot of things including a little plush Eleven that talks when you squeeze him, a Sonic Screwdriver bottle opener, badges, a Tardis necklace, wristbands, a lanyard, a mini Eleven vinyl keyring, a random Titan figure (I got regenerated Nine), a Tardis tote bag, a Festival tote bag, a Festival handbook, a Festival t-shirt, and a Sherlock mug that I'm planning to give to Rob at Christmas cos I know he likes Sherlock.

Overall I didn't spend too much money, and, like I said before, I once again resisted the lure of the purple coat. Despite how pretty it is:

Really brings the whole cosplay together, don't you think? (I wish I had a better picture of me wearing it though.)

Once the convention was over we headed back on the Emirates Air Line, which gave us beautiful views of East London at night. It was pretty windy too, so we swayed quite a bit along the way! We then had cocktails and dinner in the O2 where my clothes probably looked quite a bit weirder than they had in a convention centre full of other cosplayers!

Overall it was an excellent day and I'm hoping that I've converted Paul to the joys of cons so we can go to more together in the future. I'd definitely like to cosplay again. =D

I'm tired. So very tired. And to add insult to injury we didn't even win the quiz! It was so close though. We came joint third with 36 points, behind two teams who both scored 37! What makes it even more frustrating is that we had two questions where we put down an answer then changed it but our original answers were correct. If only we'd stuck with our first guesses we would have won. Dammit.

Now I'm just working on staying awake for the next couple of hours. I don't want to go to bed too early cos I don't want to mess up my sleep schedule, but it's so tempting.

But no, I shall resist. I shall answer the next question on the November meme instead.

Topic 7. Favorite picture of yourself:

I don't generally like pictures of myself, but I am quite fond of this one from my graduation:

I hate my official graduation photo, so I'm very glad to have this one as well. I'm the one with long hair, which looks rather nice here I feel.

So, day 4 of the November meme is Favourite Show. This is such a tricky one cos I love TV and go through stages of being super obsessed with various shows, so my answer to this can change so much depending on when you ask me. In times gone by I might have said Alias or Prison Break or Voyager. A couple of years ago I'd have said Doctor Who without a doubt. I've started to drift away from it now, cos I don't love Twelve as much as I did Eleven, but I'd still say it's a strong contender. And it gives me a good segue into this:

My costume for the Doctor Who Festival next weekend. I'm a bit worried that I look more like a waiter than the Doctor...

If only I'd bought the official replica of his coat when I was at the 50th anniversary convention a couple of years ago. If it hadn't been ridiculously expensive I totally would have done, but alas. Still, I'm hoping that the sonic screwdriver (and the fact that it's a Doctor Who convention) will make it clear to people that I am, in fact, the Eleventh Doctor and not there to take drink orders.

I haven't been here for a while because when I wrote my last entry I'd actually been planning to say more but was having trouble putting my thoughts into words and it was so frustrating that I decided to just post my 10,000 steps pic and avoid LJ for a week. Because that's the sensible and mature way to handle things.

I did consider trying to write about it now, but I think it best to just draw a line under it and move on. So, moving on...

Last night I went to Emma's for her second hen party; this time it was an old school style sleepover with a superhero theme. I dressed up as Supergirl and took along my comic book shoes, which people seemed rather impressed by. Emma suggested I wear them to her actual wedding (which will also have a superhero theme) but I'm not sure I can wear heels that high for that long!

It was a nice evening, not least because all seven of us have known each other for years now, having gone to the same secondary school, and I love that we're still friends even after all these years. But at the same time it's terrifying to realise exactly how many years it has been. (FIFTEEN! We left school FIFTEEN YEARS AGO!)

This morning, after everyone else had gone, Emma and I continued the old school sleepover tradition of finishing off the leftover chocolate for breakfast. I mentioned wanting to watch Agent Carter so we found an episode. Unfortunately it was the sixth episode so Emma had to keep telling me who people were, but it was good. And I really must get round to actually watching it from the beginning!

And, here, have some pictures of me as Supergirl with my comic book shoes of awesome because I actually look pretty good:

So, it was suggested to me that I might want to share some of my pictures from Ireland and now, less than a week later, here I am doing just that. Pretty good for someone who still hasn't got round to posting her pics from her trip to Canada in 2006...

And this brings me to the final part of my London Adventure: Wednesday.

Once again, I found myself alone in London for most of the day. I started by going over to Kingston and watching Cinderella in the cinema. There was the usual part of me that was a bit worried that it was weird to go to the cinema by myself, especially because I was seeing a family film, but I told myself that it didn't matter. And the only time anyone looked at me strangely was when I ordered my large popcorn and coke. But that's a non-negotiable part of the experience, in my opinion. I don't care that it's only 11am, I'm having my popcorn dammit!

And the film was really good, so I'm very glad I did go in the end.

I emerged from the cinema into lovely sunshine, so took a walk along the river before deciding to get a boat up to Hampton Court. I didn't go inside, but I did go into the maze. As soon as I went in I wondered if it was a mistake cos I had to be on the last boat back in 45 minutes and I started having visions of wandering the hedges for hours, lost forever in the Hampton Court maze! But fortunately I made it to the centre without much difficulty. I then went back and tried to work out if there's a knack to it. I think keeping hedge on your right hand side the whole time will see you through. It led me to a dead end just before reaching the middle, but other than that it seemed to work.

Wednesday evening saw me joining Paul's usual team for his local pub quiz. I absolutely love pub quizzes and it makes me sad that I haven't been to one in years, so I was very excited about joining this. And, best of all, I was actually useful! There were lots of answers I knew that other people knew too, but there were two that I alone gave the answer to (What item of clothing is named after an atomic testing site? Bikini. Which Roman emperor apparently tried to make his horse a consul? Caligula.) So I feel that I actively contributed to the fact that we won! Yay!

And now, because I don't feel that I have spammed you all with enough photos yet, I present some more than I took on my trip:

On Tuesday evening Paul and I made our way over to Camden to see Dar Williams at the Jazz Cafe. It was our third time seeing her, and hopefully not our last, but our first time at this particular venue. It was a nice place, smaller than Bush Hall, but very dark. Even before the concert started the lights were all down and it was a bit odd.

Dar was amazing, as usual. I was closer to the stage than I have been before, although off to the side so I got a bit of a profile view. And I really loved Lucy as well, so I was happy when Dar brought her out to join her on the last couple of songs. In fact, this was actually the very first time I've bought the supporting artist's music at a concert I've gone to. She signed the CD for me too cos she's lovely. Dar came out as well but I didn't get her autograph this time cos I already have a signed copy of Emerald that I bought from PledgeMusic when she was funding the album. I thought I should give other people a chance to meet her and get theirs signed!

Just like with the DWSS I put some of my pictures on Tumblr, and I'm going to post them here as well so you can all share in the joy:

Day two of my London Adventure saw us baking biscuits and watching Eurovision. I absolutely love Eurovision and think it is one of the greatest events of the year, representing the pinnacle of human achievement in the modern age. Paul does not share this viewpoint. But I made him watch it anyway.

I must say that I was very disappointed in our entry. It's a really good song and I thought we had a real chance of finishing in a decent position this year, but it just did not sound good live. And I definitely could have done without the neon light-up clothes and weird dance moves that had nothing to do with the song. But we didn't come last, so that's something! Although I definitely don't think that either Austria or Germany deserved their nul points.

But I think the biggest surprise of the night to me was that Serbia didn't do better. I mean, tenth isn't a bad spot but I thought they were going to be right up at the top fighting it out with Sweden for first place. It was a lovely song with a wonderful message and I expected it to be a huge success. But apparently Europe did not share my view.

And now the contest is going to Sweden. I'd love to actually go and see it live one of these years. I just need to find someone who'll go with me cos Paul is... not keen. At all.

~*~

Bank Holiday Monday saw us head over to East London. We drank in the pub where Jack the Ripper apparently chose his victims, because Paul likes to take me to only the nicest places. We tried to get into Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium, but alas it was fully booked. And then we had some English wine in another pub, because it was English Wine Week and on a 50% off promotion.

Monday was also the day when I discovered that the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square is no longer home to the big blue cock (I'll miss that cock), but now houses a creepy skeletal horse thing with a stock ticker ribbon tied around its leg.

Tuesday was my first day of entertaining myself while Paul went to work. I think I got the better end of the deal though cos while he was stuck in an office doing boring office stuff I was sitting in Green Park eating strawberries in the sunshine and reading my book.

The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse. I could just sit and stare at this painting for ages. And did so. I had a wander around to look at some of the other art too, including Millais's Ophelia and a creepy painting of two women holding two babies that do not look human at all (otherwise known as The Cholmondeley Ladies), but I kept coming back to this one. Because I love it.

Tuesday evening saw another concert. But I'm going to save that for my next entry because I have even more pictures to inflict on share with you all and because Dar deserves her own post.

A week ago today I started off my London adventure by going to the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular! It was amazing and I love Murray Gold's music so much. I do wish there had been more of a focus on the music of the Eleventh Doctor's era, but that's just my personal preference. I would have loved to have heard Together or Not at All - The Song of Amy and Rory (even though it would totally have made me cry right there in the arena) and The Wedding of River Song. I'd also hoped they would play the full version of I Am the Doctor, which is one of my favourite pieces ever, but I had to make do with it being part of The Pandorica Suite. Not that I'm complaining, because it is used so perfectly there and is one of the most epic things I've ever seen/heard!

I knew of two people I'd met before that were planning to go and hoped to meet up with them for a drink or something beforehand, but it didn't really work out. One of them was ill and had to cancel. The other one I did manage to see for a couple of minutes before she hurried off. I fear I was a bit awkward and didn't do a very good job talking to her, which upset me a bit. I thought I was doing better with things like that but it was like my brain froze and everything inside me tied up. I made sure to text her during the interval to ask what she thought of it so far, cos I didn't want our last interaction to have been so awkward! And I think it was ok, she texted back and we had a conversation about stealing one of the Daleks that went right past me, and afterwards she mentioned a video she'd taken where a Cyberman looked right at her! She put it online and it is indeed very cool!

I had a really good seat too. Right at the front of C-block, so there was a walkway right in front of me which meant I had a really good view when the monsters came out and into the audience. The Dalek going right past me was brilliant. And I got terrorised by a dream crab walking right towards me! Sadly the Cyberman bypassed the bit I was in, which was a shame. But at least there was no danger of being upgraded!

I took a load of photos and some of them came out really well. I put them on Tumblr, but I'll share them here too:

Peter Davison was a wonderful host; very funny and charming. I loved all his references to being replaced by Colin Baker, and David Tennant being his son-in-law, and the fact that the venue had had to be evacuated a couple of days before because they found an unexploded WWII bomb nearby. I was especially fond of one of his comments near the end where he said "This evening has been a blast. And I mean that in the sense of it having been a very good night and not in the sense of an unexploded World War II bomb."

So overall, it was a brilliant evening. Topped off by a drink at the Udderbelly on the Southbank where Paul and I proved that we were hip and down with the kids by taking a selfie of ourselves with our drinks and posting it on Twitter.

Operation Get into the Christmas Spirit is going well. Over the last few days I have made gingerbread biscuits (which were yummy) and eggnog (which was alcoholic and yummy) and plan to do so again later this week. I also managed to wrap almost all of my presents for people and took some pictures of this latest round of snow.

On the viewing front I watched Muppet Christmas Carol (one and a half times), The Santa Clause, The Santa Clause 2, Miracle on 34th Street (1947 version) and Christmas episodes of The Nanny and Caroline in the City.

The first Christmas episode of Caroline in the City came with the added bonus of Lauren Graham as Shelly. This was the first time I'd watched it since seeing Gilmore Girls and now I think I may have to rewatch all the episodes with her in. She's amazingly ridiculous!

Work was extremely busy today, which was entirely expected. Fortunately we had plenty of staff in so it wasn't the stressful mess that it often can be this time of year. I hope this pattern keeps up for the rest of the week!

To finish, I leave you with two pictures I took over the weekend of the snow that I particularly like:

Ok, I have tried many times over the past few days to actually write an entry about Edinburgh but I keep failing. I have been seriously lacking in energy and concentration recently. I've not been sleeping well and just seem to spend my days in a haze of tiredness where the simplest task requires far more effort than I can manage.

I really hope this sorts itself out before BiCon as I would like to actually be sociable and, you know, do things while I'm there.

But first, the Edinburgh Report:

I had a good time in Edinburgh, despite a few dips in mood where I became sullen and irrationally irritable. I'm sure I did not make for a good travelling companion but fortunately Paul did not drop me off the side of the castle at any point, tempting though I'm sure it must have been.

This is just part of one guy's massive collection of over 3400 bottles of Scotch. Unfortunately I feel The Scotch Whisky Experience would have frowned on us trying to drink them. But I did get my own taster tray of whiskies from the four main regions:

I didn't think to take a picture before I'd tried some, but you get the idea. I came to the conclusion that I am not a whisky connoisseur because all I really noticed about the four was that I liked the first three while the Islay was, as had been previously suggested, like drinking a bonfire. Not bad, but not something I'd choose.

All in all it was a very good trip. I think I'd like to go again at a time when the Fringe festival isn't starting and the streets are not completely jammed with people. I think autumn would be nice.

Speaking of autumn, I'm beginning to wonder if there's something wrong with me. As I mentioned in my previous entry I love the season and am really looking forward to it, but lately I've been feeling almost desperate for it to arrive. It's ridiculous that I'm wishing summer away but I can't seem to help it!

Ok, I know it's a few days late, but I have Halloween pictures! I didn't post them on Sunday cos I was packing and getting ready for Sydney (yay!), I didn't post them yesterday cos I was at work until 8pm (boo!) and I didn't post them on Monday cos I'm lazy like that.

So, another WEEK has ended and the WEEKEND has begun. I have managed to do SOMETHING to my ankle, although I have no idea WHAT. I think I should SUE my work though. I'm sure I can find some reason why it's their FAULT.

Also, I'm not writing this entry from my USUAL chair because there is a CAT in it.

My brother is a graduate. He has letters after his name. (He gets to be Bachelor of Science, which sounds so much more impressive than Bachelor of Arts. I'm jealous.)

Yes, Robert and Kat graduated today, which means I got to sit in a cathedral listening to names being read out and then sit in the sunshine drinking Pimms and eating strawberries. Much more fun than going to work.

It made me want to graduate again, though. Just a shame about the years of work that have to precede such an event. (Actually I do often wish I could re-do my graduation. There is so much about mine that I hate - I was quite a bit fatter then, my clothes look stupid and I was wearing awful, awful shoes. I especially hate my official graduation photo, which is of course the one my grandparents have up in their house.)

I was quite jealous about their gowns too. They had hoods. Actual hoods. Behold:

I took quite a few pictures using the camera John lent me and then I used Robert's camera to take some and, oh my god, I love his camera. I love it so much. I was leaning towards buying a high end digital camera rather than a DSLR but now I think I've changed my mind. I'd been put off by the size and the fact that they don't take movies (at least not the ones in my price range) but the picture quality is amazing and it's so fast. Now I'm going to have to do even more research into all this.

Of course it was helped by the fact that it was a lovely day. Perfect graduation weather really.